you can pick it out from birth. Your son is lucky--my poor mother suffered so much because she came along in the days when it was unheard of--Her family just thought she was weird and willful and tried to stamp it out of her (to no avail). She became a journalist--a good ADD occupation if you can write. But I didn't realize what her problem was until I was 30 years old. When I finally suspected it and began interacting with her differently, the light came on. She has given me much appreciation for understanding, tho it has never really been discussed.
Glad your son could avoid the drugs. Some can't (with extreme hyperactivity usually), but then hopefully they can wean off once they learn techniques to control it themselves. Absolutely teachers need to recognize ADD--the incidence is so high in America they should be better trained in it from the start. I have a friend whose daughter is 8 and was going down the bad road at school. When the parents realized her teacher was dealing with ADD all wrong, they found a way for the daughter to get a teacher who understands it. Like magic, the girl is now excelling. Right, you do have to beware making ADD an excuse for everything--but a wise teacher or parent can do that. The worst thing anyone can do is continually berate that child, but there's always the danger of being too lenient too. The child has to learn self-discipline like anybody else. Anyway I highly recommend the Hartmann books--suggest to read this one & then pass it along to your son if you think it's suitable:
http://www.amazon.com/Edison-Gene-ADHD-Hunter-Child/dp/0892811285"...the author, a former psychotherapist who has written previously on attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (Attention Deficit Disorder: A Different Perspective), recommends techniques for raising children diagnosed with this condition. Although many of the specific strategies will be very useful to parents raising ADHD children, too much of the text is devoted to complex genetic and evolutionary theory. According to Hartmann, ADHD is a trait (referred to here as the Edison gene, because the inventor Thomas Edison is believed to have had the trait) rather than a disorder, because it once provided useful skills for functioning in a hunter-gatherer society. The hunter abilities contrasted sharply with the farmer trait, which carried the skills required in farming societies. For example, hunter children have a short attention span, beneficial in a dangerous world where the environment had to be constantly monitored. The innovative but impatient hunter child is usually placed in special ed classes and is looked on as a disciplinary problem; but Hartman believes that ADHD children should be thought of separately. He provides specific guidelines for parents, partly based on the work of Alfred Adler, which encourage mutual respect between parent and child. Hartmann is not an advocate of drug therapy, and he argues for educational reform and alternative schools or home schooling as better learning situations for ADHD children. Hartmann believes that creative outside-the-box thinking, characteristic of those with ADHD, is a real asset to solving many of the world's serious problems."
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Thom Hartmann is the same guy who has the progressive radio talk show and is often mentioned on DU:
http://www.thomhartmann.com/Talk about making multiple directions work in life....he is amazing. (There's a list of his books at the bottom of this webpage).